Israel’s ruling parties have approved Prime Minister Netanyahu’s budget. The big winners are the ultra-religious coalition partners. Critics warn that their clientele could now distance themselves even further from society.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has cleared an important hurdle: Early this morning, the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, passed the budget for 2023 and 2024. In the end, all members of the governing coalition voted in favour. The state budget for 2023 is the equivalent of more than 120 billion euros and almost 130 billion for 2024.
The budget had been negotiated to the last. There was still time until May 29 to avert a government failure. The fact that the decision was made even earlier and unanimously is a success for Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Special budget of 3.5 billion euros
He has been in government since the end of December. In order to have a majority in parliament, he brought national-religious, ultra-religious and, in some cases, extremist parties into his coalition. He had already made big financial promises to them during the coalition negotiations.
The ultra-religious in particular had recalled these promises in the past few weeks and demanded more money for their clientele, the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. The focus of the dispute was the so-called coalition fund, a special budget of more than 3.5 billion euros, with which the desires should be covered. On the wish list was, among other things, more money for housing estates.
There should be more money for ultra-Orthodox schools
But above all the demands of the ultra-religious parties have recently caused a lot of discussion in Israel. With the budget now passed, there will be more money for religious schools for ultra-Orthodox Jews. Even if many of these schools do not have subjects such as English and mathematics on the curriculum.
According to figures from the Ministry of Education, more than 90,000 ultra-Orthodox students were not taught these core subjects in 2019. Therefore, their chances of integration into the Israeli labor market are considered to be low. This also applies to male, married ultra-Orthodox, for whom there should now be more subsidies if they study at a Torah school instead of working.
In addition, more food vouchers for ultra-religious and usually large families are funded. In addition, a new authority is to be set up to deal with the issue of “Jewish identity”. Altogether, a sum of billions is shifted in the direction of the ultra-Orthodox.
Economists warn of long-term damage
The integration of the ultra-Orthodox Jews into Israeli society is the subject of much discussion: They make up over 13 percent of the population because they have an above-average number of children – and the trend is rising sharply. Just over half of them are integrated into the labor market. According to the statistics agency, the share of the ultra-Orthodox population group in Israeli income tax revenue is only two percent.
The opposition criticizes the budget that has now been passed because it continues to subsidize the way of life of the ultra-Orthodox, thereby consolidating it and standing in the way of integration. In an open letter, around 200 economists warned of possible long-term damage to the Israeli economy.
Netanyahu’s government remains stable
Another point of contention is whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be increasingly drafted into military service or not. The political parties in the government they represent are calling for a de facto exemption for the ultra-Orthodox from military service, which in Israel lasts three years for men. On the one hand, there is criticism of this because many Israelis also demand that the ultra-Orthodox participate in the country’s defense, which is important for Israel. On the other hand, there is hope that the army could help integrate the ultra-Orthodox.
Netanyahu’s ultra-religious coalition partners had tried to make progress on this issue in the budget negotiations. But Netanyahu apparently feared mass protests should military service for strictly religious Jews be de facto abolished.
In the end, the reallocation of billions brought the breakthrough. And for Netanyahu, what has worked in Israel for decades has once again worked: approval in parliament was bought. His government is stable – and can now turn its attention to issues such as the controversial judicial reform.